5 ms·

It is probably safe to say Condé Nast has a huge influence in who the board of directors are, and therefore controls reddit still.

by bhayden 12y ago

bradleyjg 12y ago
Not Conde Nast, Conde Nast's owners, Advance Publications, or when you really get down to it, the Newhouse family. And the grandparent saying that Advance Publications is "only" a majority shareholder is a little deceptive. The shareholders are Advance Publications, current and former employees (as part of a ESOP) and a small residual ownership of angels in the original company. While it is true that a majority owner can't just do whatever it wants, the rules protect the financial interests of minority shareholders, mostly in the context of takeovers, not the editorial independence of employees. If Si and Donald decided they really didn't like the NSFW part of reddit I think they could get rid of it.
- dublinben 12y ago
  Did they not just raise many millions of dollars in a new investment round? Did those new investors not receive a percentage of equity in Reddit Inc. as it is organized today?
  - bradleyjg 12y ago
    You're right, mea culpa. It was a $50M investment on a reported $500M valuation. So 10% to the new investors (with a possibly defunct plan to give 10% of that, i.e. 1%, to the site's users), and 90% split between Advance Publications, ESOP, and the legacy angels (reported at less than 1% of the pre-investment total). As for the ESOP percentage, all I've found is a reference in Forbes that describes it as a "sizable minority".
brandonwamboldt 12y ago
No it's not safe to say that at all. Condé Nast is a subsidiary of Advanced Publications, one of MANY (AP is huge). Advanced Publications is the company that owns the majority share of Reddit, Inc. It's unlikely a small subsidiary of AP has much influence on one of AP's investments. We don't even know how much influence AP has, since owning a majority share doesn't mean they have a lot of control. Also Reddit, Inc. just went through a round of investments, so those investors likely have a lot of influence too.

It is probably safe to say Condé Nast has a huge influence in who the board of directors are, and therefore controls reddit still.

by bhayden 12y ago

It is probably safe to say Condé Nast has a huge influence in who the board of directors are, and therefore controls reddit still.

bradleyjg 12y ago

Not Conde Nast, Conde Nast's owners, Advance Publications, or when you really get down to it, the Newhouse family. And the grandparent saying that Advance Publications is "only" a majority shareholder is a little deceptive. The shareholders are Advance Publications, current and former employees (as part of a ESOP) and a small residual ownership of angels in the original company. While it is true that a majority owner can't just do whatever it wants, the rules protect the financial interests of minority shareholders, mostly in the context of takeovers, not the editorial independence of employees. If Si and Donald decided they really didn't like the NSFW part of reddit I think they could get rid of it.

dublinben 12y ago
Did they not just raise many millions of dollars in a new investment round? Did those new investors not receive a percentage of equity in Reddit Inc. as it is organized today?
- bradleyjg 12y ago
  You're right, mea culpa. It was a $50M investment on a reported $500M valuation. So 10% to the new investors (with a possibly defunct plan to give 10% of that, i.e. 1%, to the site's users), and 90% split between Advance Publications, ESOP, and the legacy angels (reported at less than 1% of the pre-investment total). As for the ESOP percentage, all I've found is a reference in Forbes that describes it as a "sizable minority".

brandonwamboldt 12y ago

No it's not safe to say that at all. Condé Nast is a subsidiary of Advanced Publications, one of MANY (AP is huge). Advanced Publications is the company that owns the majority share of Reddit, Inc. It's unlikely a small subsidiary of AP has much influence on one of AP's investments. We don't even know how much influence AP has, since owning a majority share doesn't mean they have a lot of control. Also Reddit, Inc. just went through a round of investments, so those investors likely have a lot of influence too.